When parents receive a diagnosis of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) for their baby, they don’t have much time to make a treatment decision. The sooner the baby is treated, the less chance the baby will develop an infection. Because babies with SCID have no functioning immune system, an infection could be life-threatening. Infection also reduces the chances of successful treatment.

Faced with this urgency, parents must decide, with guidance from doctors, the best course of treatment for their baby. The accepted treatment is hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Other options include gene therapy for some types of SCID and Enzyme Replacement Therapy for ADA-SCID.

A recently created video for the SCID Compass program examines the three treatments and how they work. The 2-minute animated video breaks complicated processes down into simple steps to help parents understand the basics of the treatments.

Genetic Alliance Expecting Health, a SCID Compass partner, created the video to compliment an existing section on SCID treatments at www.scidcompass.org. Other parts of the SCID journey summarized with these short but informative videos include “Understanding SCID” and “Returning Home.”

To view the “Exploring Treatment” video, click here.